Colin my NEQ6 has improved substantially with the Rowan Belt Drive and new guide parametres advice from the Metaguide author. Its all in the tuning imho.
I did fiddle with mine a little and have to agree, fiddling with belt tension was helpful. My biggest bug bear was that on some nights I could do 1800s subs all night and not drop one, a week later the next time I set up I could be doing 150s and end up ditching 50% of the nights data.
I did fiddle with mine a little and have to agree, fiddling with belt tension was helpful. My biggest bug bear was that on some nights I could do 1800s subs all night and not drop one, a week later the next time I set up I could be doing 150s and end up ditching 50% of the nights data.
That was my experience exactly. I needed to babysit the mount a whole night to get good data. Some subs were awesome while others were not usable. I clearly lacked skills to tune my hypertuned AZEQ6 well enough
That was my experience exactly. I needed to babysit the mount a whole night to get good data. Some subs were awesome while others were not usable. I clearly lacked skills to tune my hypertuned AZEQ6 well enough
I did fiddle with mine a little and have to agree, fiddling with belt tension was helpful. My biggest bug bear was that on some nights I could do 1800s subs all night and not drop one, a week later the next time I set up I could be doing 150s and end up ditching 50% of the nights data.
Are you sure it's not the seeing? The only nights I have much trouble guiding are the nights it probably isn't worth imaging on anyhow
Another update: in spite of my very limited computer skills, I managed to connect the mount to my laptop wirelessly. That is new to me and uber cool, and also one less cable to worry about!
I am reporting that I went back to using a cable to connect the mount, as I was getting frequent timeout errors when running the mount through a house wifi network. The mount appeared to perform normally in spite of those errors, but I prefer to be on a safe side.
I suspect that my $300 laptop from Office Works might be a tad too slow for a fast wifi connection, in particular when running SGP, APCC, PHD2, Cartes du Ciel, PemPro, APPM...or maybe it is the house modem? I doubt it is a problem with CP4.
Anyway, no timeout errors with an Ethernet cable. The mount can also connect via a usb (checked - no probs with this one) or serial port.
After following steps in PemPro got PA pretty close within 10 minutes - good news. I hope I will be able to also utilise a pointing model in the near future.
Still experimenting with different settings in PHD2. Attached is an example of about 10 minutes of guiding, both axes are in arcseconds.
Thank you for following my journey with the new mount.
Suavi
That's some really nice tracking Suavi! That mount looks like a real performer!
Thanks you Colin. Guiding is definitely better than with my AZEQ6, so I am happy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gregbradley
Impressive graph.
If you set up on the same spot each night and mark where the tripod feet sit you can save each night setup time.
Greg.
This is exactly what I did so last night I only needed to very slightly adjust the mount and it took me only 10 minutes to PA.
I remember with my previous mount the lowest RMS error I got on a few occasions was 0.42", but such nice guiding never lasted and usually RMS error was between 0.6-0.8". So it is encouraging to see that with my Mach1 I am now getting about half of previous mount's RMS errors.
But what I also like is a non-existent/negligible backlash with Mach1, so repositioning on the same target on the following night was quick and accurate at first attempt to within 3pixels, while with my AZEQ6 it often took SGP quite a few corrections to centre on the target being imaged over several nights.
Beautiful tracking Suavi so long as the seeing is up to it I can get my EQ6 down to about 0.4". It'd be interesting to hear how much you think the star sharpness is benefitting from the better tracking.
Beautiful tracking Suavi so long as the seeing is up to it I can get my EQ6 down to about 0.4". It'd be interesting to hear how much you think the star sharpness is benefitting from the better tracking.
Thank you Dunk. Your EQ6 guiding at 0.4" is doing awesome job and it is certainly a keeper
So far, after initial excitement has settled a bit, I have not noticed a massive improvement in star sharpness in Ha, perhaps because so far I have been imaging pretty low above the horizon
What I have noticed though is that guiding is far more consistent and star position oscillates tightly around the central position on a graph in PHD2, so it gives me confidence that I am getting the best data I can possibly acquire with my scope and from my location.
I imagine that most of the time there isn't likely to be a huge increase in star sharpness as even when you're getting 0.6-0.8" RMS, it is below seeing conditions/your imaging resolution anyway. As you say, you know that you're imaging at sky/camera conditions now and not whatever the EQ6 decides to do on the night.
When I think you'll benefit most from is the random spikes that are inherent to the cheaper mounts due to less than perfect machining. Or it'll be increased stiffness when there is a breeze.
You are totally right Colin. I also like how SGP accurately centres on the target on the first go with the new mount and calibration in PHD2 is now swift.
I think consistency and ease of achieving it are what you're paying for, on top of the beauty of the end product and engineering involved in getting there
I might need to tighten my worms and see if I can reduce the backlash a little, but other than that, it'll have to do
Last edited by Camelopardalis; 24-11-2016 at 11:55 AM.
Dunk, if your mount is guiding well I would resist tinkering with it
What do you do when you got a new mount and there is a cloud layer blocking most of the stars? You recheck your mounts tracking!
PemPro recorded six worm cycles before clouds got too thick and completely blocked the stars. The PA was a bit off but it is reassuring to see smooth tracking and PE within the specs.
Dunk, if your mount is guiding well I would resist tinkering with it
What do you do when you got a new mount and there is a cloud layer blocking most of the stars? You recheck your mounts tracking!
PemPro recorded six worm cycles before clouds got too thick and completely blocked the stars. The PA was a bit off but it is reassuring to see smooth tracking and PE within the specs.
You're right I'm sure, Suavi...but there's always the nagging doubt with a mainstream mount of "what if?" would be nice to knock those occasional random spikes on the head.
Was clear last night and looking promising again for tonight, and as beautiful as those tracking plots are so get that mount imaging, we want to see stars
so last night I only needed to very slightly adjust the mount and it took me only 10 minutes to PA.
so long as the seeing is up to it I can get my EQ6 down to about 0.4". It'd be interesting to hear how much you think the star sharpness is benefitting from the better tracking.
would be nice to knock those occasional random spikes on the head.
